Afghanistan

Finance Ministry Irked at Under-Spending of Budget

Thursday, 16 July 2015 18:30 Last Updated on Thursday, 16 July 2015 19:15 Written by Zabiullah Jahanmal

Officials from the Ministry of Finance (MoF) on Thursday expressed dissatisfaction over under-spending of the development budget by various government institutions.

According to them, only about 25 percent of the national development budget has been spent in the first six months of the current fiscal year.

In addition, the MoF officials said that the ministry had already issued 46 percent of the funds allocated for this year's development budget for the various government institutions.

"Unfortunately, we didn't achieve the [spending] target. Government institutions had to spend 50 percent of the development budget [by mid-year], but it is not happened. We are quite concerned about the issue – about why government institutions do not take the spending matter seriously," MoF spokesman Ajmal Hamid Abdul Rahimzai said.

This comes at a time when Afghanistan's basic infrastructure and public utility projects are in dire need of development and upgrading.

"Government institutions do not have the ability to spend their development budget. Problems exist. Government institutions do not spend their development budgets because they fear that the money will be misused," economic analyst Haseebullah Mawhid said.

The national budget for 2015 is Afs436 billion, of which Afs282.48 billion was allocated for the operating budget and Afs152.68 billion for the development budget. Afs132 billion of the operating budget was provided from domestic revenue while Afs161 billion was secured through funding by the international community. In addition, of the Afs152.68 billion for the development budget, Afs137 billion of that came from foreign donations and Afs3.6 billion from domestic revenue.